Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

If, as Senator Ludwig said, this is the new Greens, there is not much new. And if this is the new dynamic leadership of the Greens, well, I do not think there is going to be much dynamism from the Greens.

The Greens have brought this bill forward—the Commonwealth Electoral Amendment (Donations Reform) Bill 2014—because they were so embarrassed by the dirty deal that Senator Di Natale brokered with the coalition on electoral reform. They failed to deal with the issue of electoral reform. If anyone had an opportunity to deal with the issue of donations, they had an opportunity to actually get something out of it when this dirty deal was brokered. What did the Greens do? They rolled over, they had their tummies tickled by the coalition and they did not even mention electoral reform in the negotiations that were changing the voting system in this country. What a pathetic, weak performance by the Greens.

I notice that Senator Rhiannon led this off for the Greens. Senator Rhiannon, to her credit, has been consistently arguing this position, as has the Labor Party, for many years. Senator Rhiannon wrote an opinion piece on this issue. Unfortunately, Senator Rhiannon was not prepared to put her name to the opinion piece. She wrote it under a nom de plume. When it was discovered that she had written this opinion piece, she was monstered by the Greens leadership and had to give a public apology.

So I will not be lectured by the Greens on these issues. The Greens have a lot to answer for in respect of their lack of backbone, their lack of commitment and their lack of political understanding that when the government wants something, when the government needs something, when you negotiate with them you have an opportunity to extract some concessions. But did the Greens extract any concessions? No, they did not extract any concessions. They simply looked to see whether they could have some political advantage, and that political advantage was to make sure that when they become what Senator Di Natale wants, a mainstream party, people who have different views from the third mainstream party would never be able to form an effective electoral base. That is because the laws the Greens will have implemented mean that small groups, progressive groups in this country, will never be able to do what former Senator Bob Brown, the former leader of the Greens, did—that is, form an effective political party and get into the Senate to be able to form a base for a future political party. The Greens have slammed the door shut on that, along with the coalition.

Let's be clear: I do not agree with Senator Ludwig's description of the new Greens. I do not know that Senator Ludwig is saying that they are new. In my view, they are the pale Greens. They really are pale. Some of the Greens' supporters who I have known for years are certainly saying to me that they are extremely disappointed with the Greens, because to become a mainstream party, as Senator Di Natale wants, means that some of their progressive policies will obviously fall by the wayside. They will do more dirty deals with the coalition. One of the dirty deals I am concerned about is on penalty rates. If anyone is concerned about what the policies of the Greens are, have a look at Senator Whish-Wilson's public statements on penalty rates, where he has argued that there needs to be an assessment of penalty rates.

This is the Greens—the Greens arguing that they could actually increase their base if they can get small business to support them. The quid pro quo for small business supporting the Greens was certainly pushed out there by Senator Di Natale—that is, the destruction of penalty rates for workers in small businesses around this country. That was never my understanding of the Greens. That was never my understanding of their policies that supposedly look after workers. So this is a big issue in terms of the Greens. They are, in my view, the pale Greens. That red centre is being carved out. The red centre is gone. We know it is causing division within the Greens—that is, the Greens parliamentary party. We know it is causing division amongst their supporters. We know in some recent polls when Greens' supporters have been asked about this they have said overwhelmingly, 'We don't want to do these types of deals.'

The Greens are turning into the pale Greens. The Greens are turning into an imitation of the Australian Democrats. You watch where they go on key issues in the future. They will simply be a pale imitation of what the Greens said they stood for, and they will become more like the Australian Democrats.

I notice it in this bill, the embarrassment bill—that is what this is. This is the embarrassment bill. They were so embarrassed when it was exposed that they had caved in on electoral reform without dealing with this donation issue that they had to bring this forward. So the embarrassment bill is before the Senate today. As Senator Ludwig said—